Stargrave Hope Eternal: NPC's

[Spinal Tap]

Hope this is useful for other solo Stargravers on here.

So as I approach the final months of painting up the bestiary for Rangers of Shadow Deep I decided to look towards more solo for Stargrave.

Initially I was going to do a series of Dead or Alive scenarios but instead plumped for buying Hope Eternal, and have had a chance to peruse the bestiary and have a glance at the set-up and random monster charts for the 10 scenarios.

It’s quite a chunk of miniatures required and, as it includes the spawning of new enemies, may be under or over estimated by a few on occasion.

Although I do have some figures that can proxy I think I will need to buy and paint a fair bit to complete this book, eg. if a creature is supposed to be able to fly then I do like it to look like it can; if a group of figures are melee only I don’t like them to have guns etc.

So, excluding anything considered terrain (and there’s a few bits I’ll need to build as the scenarios progress), here’s a rough estimate of number of enemies needed:


12+ Ruffians
4+ Pirate Troopers
1+ Pirate Shock Troopers
10+ Flying Combat Drones
3+ Enhanced Mutants
10+ Civilians
4+ Slaverbots
3 Barbarian Horat Riders
8 Barbarian Warriors
7 Barbarian Scouts
2+Rad Abominations
10+ Flying Rad Roaches
12+ Agivorus Snakes
12+ Grothek Spawn
1 Grothek
1 Sentrabot
1 Mind Gripper
1 Defence Cannon
1 Mega Crustacean

[tabletopwargamer]

Wow that's a lot. I had no idea you needed that many.  Has put me off TBH.

I'm getting together some miniatures to use as NPCs for the news rules out soon from" https://enderain.com" as I'm currently solo gaming and they seem a better fit. Im sure hoping they wont need as many figures as youve had to put together for Hope eternal!

[Spinal Tap]

Wow that's a lot. I had no idea you needed that many.  Has put me off TBH.

I'm getting together some miniatures to use as NPCs for the news rules out soon from" https://enderain.com" as I'm currently solo gaming and they seem a better fit. Im sure hoping they wont need as many figures as youve had to put together for Hope eternal!

It seems so.

[Spinal Tap]

Update from scenario 1 as I may have underestimated Ruffians; at one point I had 21 on the table.

Hopefully not underestimating the others too much.

[Spinal Tap]

Looking at spawning I may be underestimating slightly in many scenarios but not by much.

Bricks and Blocks gives a good overview, with the miniatures count discussion starting just before the 7 minute mark.

[Spinal Tap]

'No-one knows where these creatures come from but it's pretty clear they're one tough bunch to meet wherever you are'.

In an attempt to cut the number of models drastically I looked through my collection for miniatures for proxies to represent Hope Eternal's rather high miniature counts.

I struggle with proxies as I like the narrative to fit the miniatures, I can't cope with pretending a man with a gun is really a melee equipped alien (you know what I mean?).

In not really finding much suitable I cast around for ideas for a generic species that could thrive in multiple environments, adapting as necessary.

Sounded very much like the Xenomorphs from the Alien films but those miniatures seemed quite dear.

On the other hand I could get a collection of Zombicide Invader aliens for less that £20.

The small ones I've used as is but the larger four were the same sculpt so needed a bit of work.

I have replaced the heads with some leftover from genestealers and I have changed tentacle length/position and repositioned 2 hands to give 4 different creatures.

For Hope Eternal these can survive in deep seas as Agivorus Snakes/Mega-crustaceans, on the Cinder as Rad Roaches/Radioactive Abominations and as Grothek/Spawn.

I intend to just use the stats for each official creature with the narrative explanations being that the Xenos have once again colonised an area and adapted to it, developing strengths and weaknesses as they evolve.


Rubbish mobile pics I'm afraid

20221020_131931 by markndebs, on Flickr

20221020_140128 by markndebs, on Flickr

20221020_140141 by markndebs, on Flickr

20221020_140209 by markndebs, on Flickr

[zemjw]

I backed the Invader KS, and plan to use the figures for generic Xenos for lots of things. There were a whole bunch of extras with the KS, including new variants

I hadn't considered converting the duplicates, but it's a good idea, and does make them look better.

[Lord Faoil]

The Invader minis are great, I proxied mine in as the Bugs for Quarantine 37, & plan on using a different Abomination for the Grotheck with the Hunters as Grotheck Spawn. Another useful kickstarter for me was Star Saga from Mantic. Another great range of minis which I've repurposed for my own games.
The Genestealer heads look great on the Tanks. Might try something similar at some stage.

[Spinal Tap]

More NPC's added.

I've rebased the Judoon as I really didn't like the originals at all.

Really need civilians for upcoming games so a quick look through the cupboard revealed more useful Dr Who miniatures: The Silence.

Finally took a Star Saga miniature, replaced his head with one from Anvil Industry plus added a rucksack and 2 other bags.

20221106_093809 by markndebs, on Flickr


20221106_093605 by markndebs, on Flickr


20221106_093635 by markndebs, on Flickr


20221106_093643 by markndebs, on Flickr